Running back LeSean McCoy felt that he was snubbed from the Pro Bowl in 2010 after his first season as the full-time starter for the Eagles.
Well, he left no doubt whether he deserved to go this year.
McCoy's historic season will culminate with his first trip to the Pro Bowl as he was named the starter for the NFC all-star squad on Tuesday. He is the first Eagles running back to earn Pro Bowl recognition since Brian Westbrook in the 2007 season. He received the more votes from fans in the Pro Bowl ballot than any other NFL running back. In fact, McCoy was sixth among all NFL players in the fan vote.
"I worked hard for this," McCoy said on a conference call. "It means a lot to me. It means a lot to my teammates, guys that have pushed me and they had faith in me to reach this type of accomplishment. ...You think about all of the better players and running backs in the league and I can call myself one of those guys now."
The third-year running back leads the NFC and is second in the NFL in rushing yards this season with 1,309 trailing only Jacksonville's Maurice Jones-Drew (1,437 yards). No player in the league has more rushing touchdowns (17) and total touchdowns (20) this season than McCoy. In fact, those rushing touchdown and total touchdown numbers are new single-season franchise records which broke the marks previously held by Hall of Fame running back Steve Van Buren for 66 years (15 rushing, 18 total in 1945).
McCoy is also the league leader in first downs (102) and rushes of 10 yards or more (48).
"I always read about Adrian Peterson and Frank Gore. Now, I'm actually part of those guys," McCoy said.
No Eagle has rushed for more yards or gained as many yards from scrimmage as McCoy has in his first three NFL seasons. The former second-round pick in 2009 out of Pitt, McCoy has rushed for 3,026 yards and amassed 4,241 yards from scrimmage in his brief yet stellar NFL career. McCoy's 4.8 yards per carry for his career stands as the best in franchise history.
Starting with the season opener in St. Louis, McCoy has rushed for 100 yards or more in a game six times this season. On October 30 against Dallas, McCoy had a career-high 185 yards on 30 carries and also a pair of touchdowns in the 34-7 blowout win. McCoy has saved some of best football for the end of games as he is second in the league with 322 rushing yards in the fourth quarter this year, averaging 5.75 yards per carry.
The durable McCoy has not missed a game due to injury in his career. He is also tough to take down with 548 rushing yards after contact, which ranks third in the league. And even though he is fifth in the league in carries with 273, McCoy has only fumbled once all season. McCoy also bolstered the Eagles' red zone offense this season with a league-best 14 rushing touchdowns inside the 20-yard line.
Not only is McCoy dangerous in the ground game, McCoy can catch and block in the pass game as well. McCoy is tied for fourth on the team with 48 catches after leading the team with 78 just a year ago.
McCoy continues a lineage of talented running backs in Philadelphia dating back to Ricky Watters, who attended Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg, Pa. like McCoy, in the 1990s to Duce Staley in the early portion of the Andy Reid era to Westbrook prior to McCoy. Westbrook served as a mentor to McCoy when he was first drafted. Staley remains an instrumental part of McCoy's development today as the special teams quality control coach.
"Before he left, Brian, that competitive nature, I picked up on that," McCoy said. "The way he competed in practice."
In 2011, McCoy established himself as one of the league's most explosive and versatile weapons in the league. The NFL has been put on notice. As the Eagles look to finish this season on a high note and build momentum towards 2012, one of the pivotal pieces of the puzzle will be one of the league's elite running backs.
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